My Favourite Illustrations from Birth

There wasn’t one moment when writingBirth that I didn’t have a cartoon strip running through my mind. Although the vision for how these supplementary images would work have changed many (many) times since I first put pen to paper, I am super happy with their final look.

Funnily enough my editor, illustrator (Jeremy) and myself all loved the rough sketches the most – the sketches that would be a base for the final designs. And so we threw all the previous work out the window and stuck with the hand-drawn versions that my immensely talented illustrator had done for me.

Below are some of my favourite ones – I hope you enjoy them.

Water birth – I love how Jeremy captured the peace and happiness of both mom and baby

Labour Positions – I wanted to show the absurdity of women being expected to labour on their back and how unnatural this position is. I think Jeremy did a pretty great job here. I wanted a whole farm yard of animals but sadly there wasn’t space for more.

The effect of birth on babies – sadly a baby’s true well-being is very rarely spoken of in mainstream literature or by doctors themselves. I think this is my all time favourite drawing.

Breastfeeding – I love this pic; as any mom who has been through the experience knows, leaking boobs can be pretty funny (and slightly embarrassing). I wanted to show the importance of having a sense of humour in these situations as well as encouraging the general population to chill the f*ck out! about the whole breastfeeding in public debacle.

The Doctor– also one of my favourite drawings. I have been pretty brutal in my criticism of traditional obstetricians and their impersonal and often callous treatment of labouring woman, of which some of my readers have had difficulty believing. Yes some women disbelieved to such an extent they felt the need to leave some really glowing reviews on the topic (*sarcasm).

Don’t be a Dummy (pacifier) – I have to admit I was extremely proud of myself when writing this chapter, I had myself in stitches and when I told Jeremy what I wanted him to draw he replied with…’Ummmmmm’. Luckily he has as much of a wicked sense of humour as I do, I wish I had been around when he was drawing it. You’ll have to read the chapter to get the relevance of this picture 🙂